00:00Let's bring in retired two-star Marine Corps General Arnold Panara. He is the CEO of the
00:04Panara Group. General, good for you to join us this afternoon. I really appreciate your time.
00:09You probably heard David Asman a moment ago saying that American oil exports in the wake of the
00:14closure, the blockade of the Persian Gulf are at an all-time high. That would probably make
00:19Iranian oil exports at an all-time low and it's costing them money. Let's put it.
00:24Kuhn, White House Leafs, S, U.S. blockades Iran's ports right now.
00:30Put it up on the screen, $435 million per day, $13 billion a month, and that is money
00:37that comes right out of the pocket of the Iranians who are trying to...
00:40This is what cost of U.S. blockade on Iranian ports. This is their money losing. Iran is losing this
00:45much more.
00:49Okay. Hello.
00:52Yeah, well, John, great to be with you. If you're looking for my comment, I would say I enjoyed
00:59hearing the positive news on our oil exports as well as the lower taxes.
01:04Okay.
01:05And the big taxpayer today is just what you mentioned. It's Iran because they are no longer able to export.
01:10He is Arnold Punearo, retired, two-star Marine Corps general.
01:16Three million barrels of oil a day because we, they were trying to block the Straits of Hormuz.
01:23Our policy in the U.S. government for decades and decades and decades is freedom of navigation
01:28and keeping that straight open.
01:29True.
01:29And that's exactly what our United States military and Navy is doing today.
01:33Yes.
01:34Sir, President Trump is completely...
01:35Well, well, well. I am very proud of my army, my troops. Are you?
01:40...turned the tables on Iran. Iran thought that they had this big card to play, which was
01:44the global economy just by closing off the Straits of Hormuz. The president has now shown the flip
01:49side of that to say, no, we're going to close off your economy through the Straits of Hormuz.
01:54And for everybody else, it's going to be open. So what effect do you think that will have on Iran
01:59vis-a-vis getting them...
02:00Yes. U.S. take steps ahead and start blocking their whole 19% economy. Only 10% is left to
02:10flower and 90% of their economy who goes through the international waterways through the Straits of
02:17Hormuz. They have already five in the region and only one left in the outside of the Straits of
02:25Hormuz. And all is blockaded by the U.S.
02:29...back to the table.
02:32Well, look, the other thing that I want to point out, and you covered it on your program many times,
02:38is the president has given our negotiators, and I'm sure they're going back to the table,
02:43like he said, a very strong hand to play. And that's because not only is he blocking their oil
02:49exports, but he's taking out their nuclear ambition, their nuclear program. And that also has been
02:54the policy of the U.S. government for decades and decades. And he's the only president that's
02:59actually put that in force. And Sandra mentioned a comment that, you know, short-term pain for
03:06long-term gain. I can tell you, you know, none of us like paying the higher gasoline prices,
03:11but I will tell you that if Iran got a nuclear weapon, the fanatic ayatollahs they would use it,
03:16lower Manhattan, Washington, D.C., San Francisco harbor. And the devastating effects on our economy
03:22would be a thousand, million times worse than anything related to-
03:27Whose phone is ringing? Please keep your phones down, everyone. It is White House.
03:34...to gas prices.
03:36You know, I thought what was really interesting, and obviously somebody's urgently trying to get in
03:39touch with you there, General, is that, you know, Iran has been so vociferous on X and other social
03:45media platforms and their bulletin- We really need Iran to not make that nuclear weapon,
03:52because it is very bad for us that if a terrorist country have a nuclear weapon,
03:58just like North Korea have, we cannot make another situation like that.
04:04...and even up to the strait being closed by the U.S. Navy, they were saying, well, if you thought
04:12that
04:12four and five-dollar-a-gallon gasoline is bad, just wait. They're going to be longing for those days.
04:18They have been uncharacteristically quiet over the last couple of days.
04:23Galibov hasn't been saying anything. Orochi hasn't been saying anything. What do you attribute that to?
04:29These are the people, Galibov and Orochi, from Iranian side, they say so many bad things for U.S. and
04:37all.
04:37They're in a box. They have no cards to play. President Trump has all the cards.
04:43They have no access to get their oil out in a major port except through Hormuz. They have no
04:49cross-country pipeline. They've got the JAS pipeline, but they do two million out of Hormuz barrels a day.
04:55They can only do a couple of hundred thousand there. That's nothing. It's a drop in the bucket.
04:59Their military has been devastated. Their nuclear emissions have been,
05:03you know, reduced. And I think the president is correct, keeping our military focused on
05:08making sure they can't translate their enriched uranium or ever build a nuclear weapon.
05:13So I think the president has put Iran in a box that they can't get out of unless they negotiate.
05:19The White House is using Windows. Wow.
05:23And bring out a peace that we've never had in the Middle East for decades.
05:27We just got the two-minute warning to the White House briefing Caroline Levitt, Secretary Scott
05:31Besant and the Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler will be joining her this afternoon.
05:36Okay. Okay. This is a good news. We are something to come for now.
05:41Let me ask you about this. And this was whether or not China is providing
05:44weapons to Iran. This was the president with Maria Bartiroma this morning.
05:48This is true. China is backing the Iran. We all know. That's why they're using the
05:53Iran as their Covency for Strait of Hormuz.
05:59I don't think it does. I mean, he's somebody that needs oil. We don't.
06:04He's somebody I get along with very well. Just wrote me a beautiful letter.
06:08He wrote you a letter? Yeah, he did. He responded to a letter that I wrote because
06:12I had heard that China is giving weapons to...
06:17I mean, you're seeing it all over the place to Iran.
06:19This is Donald Trump today with the interview. A Mornings with Maria.
06:26That China is giving weapons. Did he say he's giving them?
06:28And I wrote him a letter asking him not to do that. No.
06:32And he wrote me a letter saying that essentially he's not doing that.
06:35So China does have a lot of vested interest in what the US is doing now because they get the
06:39bulk
06:39of their oil from Iran and it has to go through the Strait of Hormuz. Yeah.
06:43But this idea that China might be supplying weapons to Iran, the president wants to make sure that's not
06:47happening. Do we believe Xi Jinping? Well, I would say, John, the president
06:53took the correct action in addressing this with China at the highest levels and the response.
06:57And I don't have access to the highest levels of intelligence.
07:00But you will one day, man. You will one day.
07:04The president has made a pretty clear statement about the situation.
07:09I would go back, though, to what Ronald Reagan used to always say about the Soviet Union trust.
07:13Yeah. Yeah. Let's listen. This is a big code.
07:16Verify. Iran has definitely provided weapons to Iran in the past.
07:21They certainly are trying to get a foothold in Saudi Arabia with our allies by selling them weapons.
07:27So I would say trust but verify. But I would take the president at his word.
07:31Yep. All right. We'll see if that indeed is the case.
07:33That big meeting coming up within the next month, the president Xi Jinping in Beijing.
07:37OK. OK.
07:39General, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.
07:42Always a privilege. Thank you, man.
07:45Everyone, thank you for watching.
07:46Your comments are worth more than anything.
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